Bosque de Paz - Part 1

The last lodge I stayed at in Costa Rica was Bosque de Paz (literally, Forest of Peace). I found it on the internet and didn't know much about it, other than it was in a forest reserve and had trails I could explore on my own. When I arrived I was a little surprised at how "rustic" it was. But it turned out to be a great choice. The rooms were nice, the wifi was fast, the food was great. It was set meals, but they accommodated me being vegetarian. And it was in the middle of forest with nothing around for miles. I already covered the moths here, now onto the birds.

One of the first things you notice, right in the front of the lodge, were the numerous hummingbirds at the feeders. They were used to people and you could get quite close to photograph them. Of course, that doesn't mean they sat still for you. Although there were lots of hummingbirds there were only a few kinds. The most numerous were the Green-crowned Brilliants. At first I thought these were several different kinds due to the variation in coloring. Some had white on their chest, some had rust color around their throats, and some had a violet patch on their throat. I took a ton of photos of these ones. Here are a few, there are more in the full batch if you want more.

First thing in the morning, the sun was right behind the feeders. It was challenging shooting straight into the sun, but I like the backlit effect when it works.

Or the opposite - shooting against the dark shadows.

The next most common were the Violet Sabrewings. They were slightly bigger and were the bullies at the feeders. When they arrived the others would leave.

I think this last one is a Magenta-throated Woodstar. They were smaller and more shy than the others. They would dart in when there was an opening and then zip away.

The wasps and bees also liked the feeders. The hummingbirds seemed to respect the wasps and give them space.

There was the beginning of a paper wasp nest in a nearby bush. When it was in the full sun the wasps would fan the nest with their wings to keep it from overheating.

The lodge is over 1500 m (5000 feet) in the hills/mountains so it didn't have as many "tropical" birds like macaws or parrots. But lots of colorful birds came to the fruit the put out for them. Most of them were "tanagers", although recently genetics have split that group of birds. These Flame-colored Tanagers had quite different coloring between the red males and the yellow females.

Some of the bird watchers pointed out this Collared Trogon. I would never have spotted it high up in a tree, even with the bright red.

There were also a few cute little Black Phoebes hanging around.

And a Great Kiskadee that I'd seen lots of down lower.

I thought I'd get through this last batch of photos in one post, but I realize there are too many of them. Stay tuned for the second half.

Photo Catchup

I've fallen behind on posting photos recently so here is some catch up.

We had a good crop of camas lilies and bluebells along the west bay walkway.

The dandelions come out so early they're already going to seed.

I won't inflict too many reflection photos on you. I'm always trying to capture interesting patterns.

Deadnettle is invasive, but it has cute little flowers if you look close.

A cooperative hummingbird for a change. It didn't sit still for long, but it kept returning to the same perch. And I managed to catch the light for some color.

The spring wild roses.

A great blue heron in it's breeding plumage

Our spring visit to Butchart Gardens was a bit past the prime of the tulips, but there's never a bad time to go.

I managed to find a few critters.

I found this interesting seedpod in the parking lot. I think it's from an American Sweetgum

The regular white chestnut tree flowers are hard to photograph (too white). The red ones are better, although I struggled with these ones because the wind was blowing them around.

For various reasons I haven't got out kayaking too much this spring yet. This harbor seal was a bit suspicious of me, but I kept my distance and it stayed out of the water.

No bald eagle in the usual tree, but this great blue heron was posed with the chestnut flowers in the background.

Canada Geese can be regarded as pests, but who can resist those fluffy babies (with mom watching over them).

And finally, a brief visit by a house finch.

These photos are from multiple batches:
2024-04-26 West Bay
2024-05-04 Macaulay Point
2024-05-06 Butchart Gardens
2024-05-12 kayak
2024-05-15 Canada Geese

VO2 Max

This post seems a lot like bragging. I hope my handful of readers will forgive me. At my age there aren't a lot of things to brag about, especially related to physical fitness. And of course, I like to geek out on all the numbers :-) I recently had my VO2 max tested and got 51 (tl;dr - that's good)

I had it tested once before, 30 years ago, and got 69 (ml/kg/min). For a male in their 30's "elite" (top 2.3%) is 53 or over. World class athletes would be in the 80's or 90's. Although I was never an "athlete" in terms of competing in any sport, at that point I was training hard for an 8000m expedition and I'd spent a long Saskatchewan winter doing hard intervals on the treadmill in the basement. I've wondered what my VO2 max would be now. The average decline is about 10% per decade up to the age of 50, and then about 15% per decade. That would put me around 45 now. I know my running has declined so I was a little nervous that my VO2 max would be even lower than that.

I was pretty happy with 51. (I actually peaked at 55 but they take a 30 second average.) I guess all my running actually does pay off! (And it helps to be skinny. vo2 max is per kilogram of body weight, so everything else constant, it helps to weigh less.) Peter Attia suggests a good stretch goal is to qualify as elite for two decades younger than your age. I almost made it - elite for someone in their 40's is 52 or more - I missed it by one point.

I suspect I could raise my VO2 max by adding some hard intervals each week. I almost always run easy with a relatively low heart rate, which is good, but a small amount of hard exercise, near your max heart rate, helps increase your VO2 max. But hard intervals are ... hard! And running full out has a high risk of injury. One option is a long hill where I can get my heart rate up without going too fast. Or maybe a running track that at least has a consistent smooth surface.

My watch (Garmin Fenix) estimates VO2 max. I was always skeptical how accurate this was, but it was interesting to see that it wasn't too far off. It is currently estimating 55. Apparently for most people it underestimates, but for me it overestimates by about 8%.

Moths Galore

The last lodge I stayed at in Costa Rica was Bosque de Paz Reserva Biologica. One of the unexpected features here were the moths. The lodge is in the middle of the forest, and its lights were the only ones around, so they attracted all kinds of moths. They had a white sheet on the wall of the main building with a light shining on it to attract even more. Most of the guests were there for the birds, but there was one other couple that were also photographing the moths. We pointed out the good ones to each other.

We're more familiar with butterflies because we see them during the day. And we think of moths as drab gray things. But there are far more kinds of moths, about 160,000 compared to only 11,000 kinds of butterflies (worldwide). And some moths are just as pretty as butterflies. I identified some of them on iNaturalist, but most of the id's haven't been confirmed. Too many kinds of moths, and not enough people that are interested in them.

Here is the largest, most impressive moth I saw. It was bigger than my hand. That's someone's rain jacketed arm that it's sitting on.

While the big moths are impressive, some of the little ones are just as attractive close up.

That's probably more than enough moths for most people. If you want more, they're in the Flickr album.

The light also attracted other kinds of insects. Weevils are funny looking beetles with their long snouts.

Earwigs are also odd looking.

The lodge was in the hills/mountains at about 5000 ft (1500 m) so thankfully there weren't many mosquitos. I found this one perched on a moth.

I was using my usual macro setup - OM-1 camera, 60mm macro lens, and a small led panel light. I usually held the light in one hand and the camera in the other. It's harder to hold the camera steady one handed but it allows adjusting the light much better. When the moths were on a window, it was tricky to avoid reflections. The little led panel doesn't provide a lot of light, so I had the ISO cranked up to 3200. A flash would be a lot brighter and that's what most people use. But it's also much trickier to get good results. One downside of the led panel is that it also attracts the moths.

I thought I did well photographing about 70 different kinds of moths. But recently I read about an insect photographer at a lodge in Borneo that photographed 600 different kinds in a similar period of time!

See all 94 photos in this batch